


hold on tight (I dreamt of you for my whole life)

by TheGodWith5Yen



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Domestic Fluff, Dreamsharing, Family Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Interracial Relationship, M/M, Meet-Cute, POV Alternating, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25585579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGodWith5Yen/pseuds/TheGodWith5Yen
Summary: “Have you met your soulmate bà ngoại?” Lian asked as she moved to sit next to Roy, taking her cap off and setting it onto Roy’s head. Roy laughed and tucked his long hair behind his ears so the hat sat properly on his head. “Because I know Daddy hasn’t, and neither has Dì. But have—have you?” Roy leaned his arm against the sofa arm and wondered where all this about soulmates was coming from. It was something that had been explained to her before, but it must be all the little romantic Disney channel movies she had been watching lately getting into her head.Paula smiled and shook her head. “No. I’ve never met my soulmate. But, who knows. Maybe I will meet them at the market one of these days. Wouldn’t that be a funny way to meet someone after so long? At the market, like long lost friends.” Her words were wistful, and Roy could see the appeal of a meeting like that, especially after so long.-----------Soulmates dream of each other all their lives. Most don't meet, but maybe these two will connect.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Roy Harper
Comments: 7
Kudos: 33





	hold on tight (I dreamt of you for my whole life)

**Author's Note:**

> I had the sudden urge to write some dickroy and a soulmate au started coming out so!!! Here's the first chapter!!! As always I fudge up comics canon, characters, and ages as I please because comics do not have actual timelines :)
> 
> This first chapter is mostly just like worldbuilding on what soulmates are and Dick and Roy being single dads. Hope you guys enjoy!!!

A hand, warm and large, pressed against his shoulder, accompanied by a soft voice—Roy couldn’t hear what was being said, but he could hear that the speaker had a small hint of an accent and bubbling laughter. When Roy turned his head, he couldn’t make out a thing except for the usual. Red, yellow, and purple gladiolus flowers that shot up in tall stalks and orange, red, and purple king proteas wrapped around the outstretched arm that Roy could just barely make out. 

Then he woke up. 

Roy blinked groggily as he sat up and glanced around his bedroom, slowly regaining his bearings after having a soulmate dream. He wasn’t one of those people who had one every night, just a handful of times during the year, so they always made him feel off balance and disoriented when he woke. He glanced down at his sheets, where Lian was sleeping peacefully, clutching onto her pink build-a-bear bunny. Her dark hair was a mess with a little sparkly hair tie that Roy had forgotten to take out of her hair was nearly off of her head. Roy reached over and gently took the hair tie out of his daughters hair and slipped it onto his wrist.

He carefully climbed out of bed and glanced out of the window of his apartment- the old man across the street who ran a bakery was opening up the doors, there was some teenage kid riding through on a skateboard that waved hello to the old man, the sun peeked out and shone over buildings. Roy closed the curtains. 

When Lian walked out into the living room, Roy had already gone through his daily stretches and was making them some breakfast- buttered toast and over-easy eggs with the yolks perfect enough to be scooped up with the bread, along with some hash-browns since that was Lian’s current favorite way to eat potatoes at the moment. Which, in all honesty, drove Roy a little mad when they went to a fast food place and she refused to eat her french fries  _ when he knew for a fact she loved them _ . But whatever. That didn’t matter. Hash-browns were good. 

“Good morning my little bunny-rabbit. How’d you sleep?” Roy asked as he shoved some food onto two pink Barbie plates and walked over to the kitchen table, where Lian was settling into her chair with the pink bunny she was sleeping with. “Oh fuck, is that Gingersnaps? Ginger, what did I say if I ever saw your face again?” He frowned as he raised a fork up into the air like a knife, Lian giggling and shaking her head and waving her arms. 

“No! No no no Daddy! Gingersnaps- Gingersnaps says she will sign your treaty and  _ never  _ eat any of your ice cream again! Please, please,  _ please  _ don’t destroy her.” Lian pouted as she made her eyes wide and big and held her bunny close to her. It was an ongoing bit of theirs, that Gingersnaps and Roy were lifelong rivals, and it always made Lian giggle. 

Roy hummed in thought as he lowered his fork and placed it onto his plate. “Alright, alright,” he said as he crossed his arms. “If Gingersnaps signed the treaty, then she is allowed at the table.” Lian cheered happily as she began to dig into her food with her bunny still sitting in her lap. Roy smiled at her as he bit into his piece of toast. “Hey, how did you sleep? Good dreams?”

His daughter moved her head side-to-side as she chewed her hash-browns. “I dreamed about my soulmate. I think I did. Soulmate dreams are  _ weird _ .” They were weird. They were, mostly, the same, but as time went on they could change bit by bit. When Roy was a kid, his soulmate would be completely covered by flowers and he could only hear a laugh. Some people’s dreams never changed, they stayed steady and confusing until they met their person, their soulmate, their other half. But. Well. Only about sixty percent of people ever met their soulmate, the person who they could be free and open with, be happy with.

“They sure are weird, huh?” Roy said with a roll of his eyes. 

Lian gave an exaggerated nod of her head as she speared some food with her fork. “It’s nice though. Like—it’s like a really,  _ really  _ warm hug.”

Roy closed his eyes and thought about the figure of a person he might never fully see, thought about how the flowers rose up above their waist and wrapped around their arms, thought of that warm voice and that warm hand that he could never quite hear. It was like a hug. A promise. “Huh. You’re totally right.” He opened his eyes and met Lian’s. She smiled at him. Roy smiled back and burst the yoke of his egg. 

There was a word that Dick couldn’t figure out on the crossword. He squinted at the page and glanced up at his children. Mar’i was feeding Jake pieces of an orange and laughing over the fact that his little features would screw up in a mild distaste for the bitter flavor, but he kept on chewing so he must not  _ hate  _ it. “Hey Mar’i. Do you know the name of an angel who is the Protector of Metatron and starts with an ‘S’? Nine letters, has an ‘i’ in it.” Angel names past Gabriel and Raphael were not in Dick’s wheelhouse, but he knew that Mar’i liked to go through and read some of the books about Christinaity and Judaism that Bruce kept in the manor’s library because she thought angels were interesting and cool (and because she was a young genius in Dick’s humble opinion). Those and the old Goosebumps books that used to belong to Jason, so he was sure she would have some kind of idea. 

Mar’i hummed quietly as she popped a piece of orange in her mouth. “Maybe… Seraphiel? S-e-r-a-p-h-i-e-l. I think that’s the name. Does it fit?” She had spelled out the letters slowly and squinted her eyes in thought as she chewed her orange with her mouth open, but Dick only sighed as he watched her daughter. He counted the boxes in the crossword. 

“It fits! Woo-hoo, thanks baby girl.” He quickly wrote in the letters while Mar’i held up her hands and shook them in a silent applause that made Jake giggle and try to copy as he waved his little hands back and forth erratically. Dick laughed and did an applause of his own, which made Jake giggle even louder. “Alright, let’s get ready, c’mon, c’mon. It's time for us to get ready.” He picked Jake up and out of his high chair, his son babbling in his ear as he took him over to his bedroom and Mar’i quickly ran off to her own room with pattering bare feet. 

Dick got Jake into a t-shirt with a two-tone sequins in the shape of a unicorn that shifted from pink to green and a pair of beige pants that had gotten stained with a bright blue handprint that Dick just couldn’t get off and considered fine since Jake was a year old and would just grow out of them soon anyways. He listened to Jake speak—nothing more than a word Dick could decipher among babbling—and play with the sequins on his shirt as Dick changed into a striped purple and white button down and some jeans and put on the gold locket that had once belonged to his mother around his neck. He swooped Jake back up into his arms as he double checked the baby bag, then made his way over to Mar’i’s bedroom door. He knocked and called out to her. 

The door swung open and Mar’i gave Dick a bright smile as she stepped out. “All ready sweetie?” Dick asked as Mar’i grabbed his hand, the little bracelets she had shoved onto her arms ringing with each step they took towards the door. Mar’i hummed under her breath as she searched herself and in her small Hello Kitty backpack for everything she wanted before she glanced back up at Dick and nodded, “yup! I even got my 3DS so I can play with Uncle Tim. We’re going to Pokemon battle since I finally finished the Pokemon League!”

Dick grinned at her as his daughter began to tell him all about the Pokemon she had in her party as they left their apartment building and climbed into the car, Mar’i carefully watching as Dick strapped Jake into his car seat next to her. She reached over and ran a hand over Jake’s sequins with a large grin. 

The drive to the Manor from the city wasn’t too long, filled with Dick talking with his daughter and son and turning up the music every now and then when the playlist began to play Descendents songs so that Mar’i could sing along on the top of her lungs while Jake tried to follow the tune. They were halfway through Queen of Mean when Dick drove up the driveway and up towards the manor, the gravel underneath the tires cracking loudly as he slowly drove up and parked near the garage. Mar’i jumped out of the car as Dick grabbed Jake, quickly catching up with her as she pressed the doorbell. Dick pressed a kiss to the top of Jake’s curls and he turned to look at Dick and gave him a wide gummy smile as he said “papa!”

Lian swung their arms back and forth as they climbed up the stairs, her ponytail tucked through the bright orange Star City Rockets baseball cap she had taken to wearing. Roy had never been into baseball all too much and Lian had only been to Star City a handful of times in her eight years of life, but she was an athletic kid and had declared that she was a Rockets fan and  _ not  _ a Gotham Guardians fan when she was six so Roy indulged her where he could and Ollie definitely liked to buy as much merch for his team for her anyways. They walked up the stairs together, with Lian eventually bounding two at a time as she claimed she would win a championship race against him as she reached the apartment door first. 

“Yes! I won! You’re a big loser pants Daddy!” Lian grinned widely as she placed her hands on her hips and wiggled around in some kind of dance. 

Roy reached her and leaned down onto her as he pretended to breath hard. “Oh man, yup, you win, I’m old and weak and can no longer go on. Lian, my sweet, sweet daughter, remember me.” He stuck his tongue out and Lian giggled and poked at his cheek until he stood straight up and knocked on the door. 

The door swung open. “Hey. There you guys are, Mẹ was starting to get worried about you guys.” Artemis propped open the door and crouched down to give Lian a proper hug and a kiss on the cheek before standing back up to give Roy a quick punch to the arm that hurt more than Roy wanted to admit. Roy stepped inside and moved into the living room where Paula was stitching together a mint green fabric that was shaping up to look like a frog. Paula smiled when she caught sight of Roy. 

“There you two are. How has your morning been?” She set the fabric down in her lap and reached a hand out for Roy to grab. Paula was a sweet woman, despite the troubled past she once had, that, really, Roy could only relate to considering the shit he’s done before Jade gave birth to Lian. Roy sat down on the couch next to her, continuing to hold her hand in his, as Lian rushed over to her grandmother to kiss her on the cheek and detail how their morning went. She ran her hands over the side of Paula’s wheelchair, where Lian and her aunt had long ago pressed Hello Kitty and Tangled stickers to. When Lian mentioned her soulmate dream, Paula smiled, sad and small, as she let go of Roy’s hand to brush at Lian’s hair. “Soulmate dreams are very mysterious.”

“Have you met your soulmate bà ngoại?” Lian asked as she moved to sit next to Roy, taking her cap off and setting it onto Roy’s head. Roy laughed and tucked his long hair behind his ears so the hat sat properly on his head. “Because I know Daddy hasn’t, and neither has Dì. But have—have you?” Roy leaned his arm against the sofa arm and wondered where all this about soulmates was coming from. It was something that had been explained to her before, but it must be all the little romantic Disney channel movies she had been watching lately getting into her head. 

Paula smiled and shook her head. “No. I’ve never met my soulmate. But, who knows. Maybe I will meet them at the market one of these days. Wouldn’t that be a funny way to meet someone after so long? At the market, like long lost friends.” Her words were wistful, and Roy could see the appeal of a meeting like that, especially after so long. 

Lian hummed in thought before giving a small nod of her head. “That would be nice. I’ve met  _ lots _ of nice people at the market you know?” She leaned into Roy and grabbed his hand, playing with his fingers as she spoke to her grandmother, Roy making a comment now and then or giving Artemis a pointed look that made her grin and stick her tongue out in reply to his wordless message. 

After a while, Roy stood up and headed towards the kitchen, grabbing himself a small bottle of Sunny D. As he was ripping off the cap with his teeth, Artemis strolled into the room with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on his lips. “I’d offer a hand, but I really do not want any of your spit to come near me.” She said with a wrinkle of her nose as she leaned against the kitchen table, grabbing for a single mint left on the table.

“Ha, thanks Artemis.” Roy mumbled as the piece of plastic ripped off and he spit it into the trash can. “Before I forget, you don’t have to watch Lian next weekend. My friend’s fiancé has a kid about Lian’s age and they thought it would be nice for them to play together during the reception and not just get bored. Which she’d probably find fun. She’s a real social kid.” Never had Roy been as social as Lian. Sure, he could speak to others, but she could walk up to someone and start having a conversation regardless of who they are. That habit of hers had definitely given Roy a few minor heart attacks over the fact of turning around for a minute and finding her speaking to an adult on another aisle. 

Artemis snorted. “Lord knows where she got that. None of us are really models for social behavior. Well, sounds good then. I can make some plans to hang out with friends instead. Hang out at the mall. Watch a movie. Drink Starbucks. I might honestly prefer to spend time with my mom and niece oh fuck.” Roy laughed and nudged her shoulder, as he walked past her. Artemis hissed and lunged at him, causing Roy to laugh and jog back towards the couch with his daughters aunt right on his heels.

The manor was, as it always was when every one of Dick’s siblings was home, loud and full of laughter. It made nostalgia push at his chest as he closed his eyes and listened to his brothers arguing over a video game, of the kids playing with the new kittens that one of Selina’s many cats had given birth to a few weeks before, of the quiet breathing that came from Cassandra who had curled up underneath Dick’s arm the moment he had sat down and had fallen asleep. Dick opened his eyes when a hand—large and warm and long ago familiar—pressed to the top of his head.

“Hey.” Dick smiled as he met Bruce’s warm brown eyes. A lock of hair, gray and curled, fell over his dad’s forehead and there were sparkly hair clips lined along his hairline. Dick’s smile widened and he tilted his head towards where the kids were playing. “Was that mine of yours doing?” 

Bruce smirked as he reached up and pressed his fingers against the colorful clips. “Helena’s. Steph bought her a pack of hair clips, nail polish, and makeup so now Helena will sit at Selina’s vanity and do her makeup like her mama does and she does mine too.” His smirk shifted into a smile, happy and wide enough to show his teeth. He had a kind, warm smile that always made Dick feel like that nine year old kid who was meeting his adoptive father for the first time who had wrapped him in a hug and told him “I know it’s not alright now, but I hope I can help” while wearing that warm-hearted smile that next to nobody but family saw. “Except for the makeup, it's all from the dollar store too. We could buy Helena anything and she prefers something that is a dollar.”

Dick laughed quietly and watched how Damian had Jake in his lap with a few kittens climbing over their legs and how Mar’i was showing Helena how to properly hold a kitten without accidentally hurting them. “Yeah, well, she’s a kid. You can stick a kid outside with a bucket, a shovel, and water and they’ll find a way to have the most fun they’ve ever had in their life.” Some of his favorite childhood memories of playing were spent outside while digging up worms in the garden to show Alfred and Bruce, helping them tend to the vegetables that grew out the yard, finding ways to make obstacle courses in the mud for his Hot Wheels that Bruce would buy him from the little advertisements next to a stores cash register. “Hey, remember when Jason would get those balloons from the dollar store that had faces of pigs and smiley faces and we would just belt the  _ shit _ out of each other in the backyard?” 

“Oh how could I forget?” Bruce said with a small sigh. “I once had to stop him from vandalizing cop cars using those balloons. It wasn’t like they  _ didn’t  _ deserve it, but no way was I going to let him do something like that. I did help him throw them at statues of the ‘Founding Fathers’ and such.” His lips turned up in a smile and Dick grinned back, thinking about Bruce of all people helping the wildcard of their family in vandalism. With his public image and all he tended to try and not get into the spotlight all too much, but then again Bruce was the same man who got arrested several times in peaceful protests so maybe it shouldn’t be all too surprising that he would find a way to help Jason fuel his rebellious nature. 

Cassandra sat up from Dick’s side and began to sign, ‘Did you two get caught?’ Which only received a sly grin in response which made both her and Dick laugh and fall into each other as they watched their father walk off towards where the boys were getting a little too rowdy and loud. 

Roy’s fingers went through the familiar movements of braiding his hair as he stepped out of the bathroom and began to move towards the living room, where he could hear Tangled playing with Lian humming along. His daughter was lying on the floor, drawing as she watched the movie, and Roy stood there watching her for a moment before he moved to sit on the couch to watch the rest of the movie with her. When it finished he moved it to watch a show about people making knives, which Lian seemed to find interesting as she went from drawing princesses and dragons to knights with long swords and warrior queens. 

“You know, I could make knives.” Roy said with a grin as Lian showed him her drawings. “I used to make them a lot back when I lived with Grandpa Ollie and Dinah.” 

Lian blinked at him and frowned. “You’re lying. You’re just trying to sound cool.” She pointed a finger at him and poked at his shoulder. Roy frowned at her as he slowly raised up his hands and made a tickling motion with them, curling his fingers back and forth in the tell-tale gesture. His daughter squealed and quickly scrambled off of the couch and shook her head. “No no no! No! No tickling! I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it!” 

“Too late you unleashed my wrath. Prepare to get a tickle attack.” Roy stood up and quickly picked up his daughter and held him over his shoulder as she squealed and kicked out her legs, Roy walking them over towards her room where he gently tossed her onto her bed and gave her a few tickles that made her laugh until she was wheezing, her face red from the effort, before raising up his hands in surrender and declaring, “Alright, alright punishment over. Just know I am cool and to never question it again. It’s getting late now, so get ready for bed. Please.”

Lian picked up a stuffed animal from her bed and held it close to her chest, a frown on her face as she glanced down. “Can’t I sleep in your bed again Daddy? I don’t like sleeping alone. It’s scary.” Roy placed his hands on his hips and watched how she pressed her face into her toy and her fingers messed with the little ribbon it wore. A part of Roy wanted to tell her no, that he wanted his time alone, but— 

She said it was  _ scary _ . Did it remind her of when Jade tried to take care of her only to leave Lian all alone with nothing but her stuffed animals and her blanket late at night? Roy knew she had been too young at the time to actually remember, but there must be something that worried her about it still. It had been the last time that Jade had been alone with Lian, since Roy and Paula had discussed with her that if she wouldn’t actually be with her daughter, Jade couldn’t have her alone. Roy sighed and wrapped his arms around Lian and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Her hair ticked his nose, but he stayed there for a moment longer to let her know he was there for her. Always. He was her father. 

“Okay, let’s go get ready for bed.” 

As Lian changed into her sleeping clothes, Roy went into his room. He glanced out the window and watched the people walking out along the sidewalk. There was a couple of teenagers leaving the bakery and obviously joking together, laughing and leaning against each other. A kid about their age rode past on a skateboard and waved at them, which made the teenagers wave back and shout loud enough for Roy to hear from the window. The sun was beginning to set, the sky slowly becoming purple as daylight was being chased away. Roy breathed in and wondered whether or not he would dream about his soulmate again. Even if it was something that might never come, it was a comfort. A lifeline. A chance. 

The pattering sound of bare feet told him that Lian was running into the room, so Roy stepped away from the window and moved towards the bed, waiting to help tuck her in just the way she liked. 

With a small sigh, Dick placed his phone onto his nightstand. With everything going on, he had the kids full time since Kory was busy. And while he wasn’t mad about it—considering it he understood why she needed the temporary space as they got everything ready—it made bedtime a little hard since it made Mar’i want to steal his phone and talk to her mom as long as possible. Still, with Kory’s help Dick was able to get Mar’i to take a shower and get into bed until she tired herself out and fell asleep while hugging her Stitch tsum tsum. 

Dick climbed into his own bed and glanced at Jake, who had fallen asleep while he was negotiating with Mar’i. He caressed his son's smooth cheek and smiled down at him before pressing a quick kiss to his hair and lying down, turned towards Jake with his hand on his side. Slowly, slowly, he was lulled to sleep by the sound of his son's slumbering breaths, the day washing away from him as he began to make way for the next. 

There were flowers—red, yellow, orange, purple flowers—that wrapped around his arms and locked him in place, along with flowers with long stalks that kept him from stepping any closer. Dick reached forward, despite the fact that he couldn’t make out much past the flowers, but he reached, he reached, because he could hear a voice, smooth and low and laced with a chuckle that made him feel calm despite the flowers that held him back, despite the fact he couldn’t place the words or the voice. He reached forward and pressed against the back of the figure he couldn’t make out, his hands feeling a shoulder blade underneath him. 

Then he woke up. 

**Author's Note:**

> Vietnamese words:  
> Mẹ: Mom  
> bà ngoại: maternal grandmother  
> Dì: aunt
> 
> If I used these terms awkwardly or have them wrong please tell me so I can fix it! I am not Vietnamese so I looked up what I could.
> 
> Please leave a kudos and a comment if you enjoyed this <3 Thank you for reading <3


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